Kindred by Octavia Butler

I’m almost ashamed to admit that until this year, I had never read any Octavia Butler. When I went through my original SciFi reading phase in high school, she was never even mentioned amongst my nerd-kin friends, and now, though I’m late to the party, I know I have found one of the best writers, of any kind, of the modern age. Kindred is Butler’s best selling novel and is still required reading for many university and college writing and gender studies programs. The story is labeled as science fiction or, more precisely, speculative fiction, because it uses time travel […]

The Subprimes by Karl Taro Greenfield

If I had read this book three years ago, I would have wept my way through to the end. Since things have improved a bit for my family since then, I was able to read The Subprimes with a much clearer eye toward the outer extremes of wealth inequality which Carl Taro Greenfield imagines for the United States of the future. Greenfield does manage to put a humorous spin on a rage-inducing topic, and for that, he deserves kudos. While I have no doubt that a dystopia populated by high-wage, super wealthy workers who discriminate and persecute unemployables with […]

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The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

I’ve just realized that I really need to keep up with my reviews, as I opened this draft and had to think long and hard about the book to remember what it was about. That might actually be my review, right there. Mrs Smith’s actual review of The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

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Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life by William Deresiewicz

“Colleges should remember that selecting students by GPA more often benefits the faithful drudge than the original mind.” ― William Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of America’s Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life I found William Deresiewicz’s Excellent Sheep through reading one of his early articles which formed the basis for this book. As someone who attended state universities, then went to art school, I have felt the sting of feeling comfortable with my well-rounded education and intellectual curiosity, then slowly realizing that I have no legibility in today’s marketplace because I didn’t follow the proscribed educational stairway […]

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

I had wanted to read Under the Banner of Heaven for quite a long time, and finally found a copy at my local used book store this year. I started and stopped reading several times, to pick up lighter, less gruesome novels, but I kept coming back to read this intense, true-crime novel, that is less about the horrible murder of a 24 year old mother and her 15 month old daughter (and it was violently and insanely horrible), as it is about a fundamentalist sect of Mormonism that cleaves to the tenets of Joseph Smith’s original Mormon revelations, in […]

How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran

In How to Build a Girl Caitlin Moran manages to write a story of teenaged angst that so closely resembles my own experiences that I though she had perhaps stolen my diary and just added a lot (like, a lot, a lot) more sex. Except I didn’t keep a diary in those days. (Now you would call it a journal, and be really precious about it). How to Build a Girl is the story of Johanna Morrigan, a working-class girl in 90s England who hates her life. To compensate for her perceived failures, Johanna decides to become Dolly Wilde—a ”fast-talking, […]

Upgraded by Neil Clarke (editor)

Cyborgs are a common theme in SciFi, so Upgraded, edited by Neil Clarke, with short stories from authors from around the world is a welcome anthology for the genre. I picked it up, specifically to read Madeline Ashby’s contribution, “Come From Away” but I was definitely invested in reading more. Unfortunately, more doesn’t begin to describe Upgraded. In all, there are 26 stories, which, might honestly be over-egging the pudding a bit. When your theme is so narrow that every story pretty much has to begin by describing what modification the main character has, one might begin to hesitate to continue. […]

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

I just can’t say anything bad about Roxane Gay. I love The Butter (and The Toast), and I adored every essay in Bad Feminist. Reading Bad Feminist was like hanging out in my bedroom with my high school best friend. I felt warm, and safe, and happy all the way through. Gay writes from the heart and she isn’t afraid to look carefully at herself and admit some shit is hard for her to do. She’s honest and funny. And that’s it. That’s all you need to know. I can’t write like Roxane Gay, so, do yourself a favor, follow her […]